Lynch and His Critics

Michael Patrick Lynch is the Provost Professor of the Humanities and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. Lynch’s core research has focused on questions of the nature and value of truth, the function of truth in domains like artificial intelligence and politics, and the “post-truth” era. But he has published widely in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind; his work also spills over into scholarship on social and racial justice, culture and technology, and sociopolitical aspects of the philosophy of language. Because Lynch’s work is diverse and wide-ranging, the volume we would like to construct is one where critics and admirers alike engage with select aspectsof his vast corpus of philosophical work. The result should be a volume that is attractive to many people in Philosophy and beyond.

Saturday, 11 July 2026

Te Piringa Law Building - N3.01

8:00am

TBD

Crispin Wright (University of Stirling)

8:45am

Minimal Detachment and Caring about Truth without Losing Our Minds

Douglas Edwards (Utica College)

9:30am

Truth as a Thick Concept

Robert Barnard (University of Mississippi) & Adam Podlaskowski (Fairmont State University)

10:15am

Morning Tea

10:30am

Is It Too Late for Open-Minded Dialogue?

Heather Battaly (University of Connecticut)

11:15am

The Problem of Creeping Concordance

Chase Wrenn (University of Alabama)

12:00pm

Truth and Other Human Values

Gila Sher (University of California, San Diego)

12:45pm

Lunch

2:00pm

On Epistemic Diagnoses of Political Problems

Sandy Goldberg (Northwestern University)

2:45pm

The Elusiveness of Concordance: Political Inquiry and the Nature of Political Truth

Jeremy Wyatt (University of Waikato)

3:30pm

Afternoon tea

3:45pm

True to Lynch: Moderate Pluralism or Moderate Monism?

Nikolaj JLL Pedersen (Yonsei University)

4:30pm

On the Normative Role of Truth in Politics

Susanna Melkonian-Altshuler (Oxford University & University of Vienna)

5:15pm

Lynch's Concept of Truth, Early and Late: From Vivian Street to Mansfield Road

Joseph Ulatowski (University of Waikato)

6:45pm

Dinner at